Somewhere I Belong
by Lynnwood
Summary: For some, the defeat of Myria solved everything. For others, it was only the beginning. Rei still has no idea who or what he is, or where he really belongs. But Momo has found evidence in some Techno Relics that might solve the mystery. Re-M, T-L, Ry-N.
1. Prologue

**Prologue **

Myria was defeated.

A group of six unlikely, rag-tag heroes banded together and worked to save the world, right the wrongs and punish the wicked. And perhaps, in the doing of all that, find answers to the many questions that plagued their souls as well. For some, the confrontation with God did all of that and more.

For others, that epic battle was only the beginning.

Ryu, the forgotten Prince and rightful heir of the Brood legacy and their unspoken leader. Nina, Princess of all Wyndia and heir to its throne, also madly in love with the blue-haired dragon. Momo, mechanical genius and engineer, a woman with a heart of gold and a robot friend made of copper. Rei, a weretiger without a home, an incredible thief with a very troubled heart. Peco, mutant onion and the mighty Yggdrasil in disguise, who returned to the earth and nature upon Myria's defeat. And Garr, Guardian of Urkan who—after meeting the challenges placed before him and fulfilling his purpose—finally took his rightful place with his brethren in eternal stone slumber.

Because of all this, it was a very somber group of four who made the long trek back across the Desert of Death. They had won the fight, yet somehow it felt as if they had lost more than they had gained in the doing of it. Yet little did they know what lay in store for them on the other side of their journey. Resting for a while at the Oasis, the group came across a battered and bloodied man, violet hair hanging long in front of his face and garnet red eyes troubled with pain and guilt. Free at last from Myria's control, and somehow having survived their epic battle, Teepo had returned.

The Dragon Lord fell to his knees before a stunned Ryu, head bowed, and brokenly offered his Prince his life. A small token, he murmured, for the pain he had caused them all.

After this was said, Teepo was then quickly yanked to his feet by a scowling Rei without further preamble, cuffed upside the head with a growl for him to shut his yap about all that dying nonsense and then briskly ushered inside the tent so that his wounds could be seen to. Ryu was not one step behind, grin on his face and a hint of moisture in his cerulean blue eyes.

Upon returning to Dragnier it was then discovered, somewhat miraculously, that the powers given up by the Brood to escape Myria and her Guardians' notice had been utterly restored! No one could explain it (though Ryu suspected Deis probably had a hand in it). Once but a memory, the Brood had fully returned to the world. They turned to Ryu to lead them. As the Kaiser dragon, it was his birthright and his duty. At first hesitant, Ryu eventually accepted his responsibilities as rightful King of the Brood. He then named Teepo as his highest General and second-hand, much to the other dragon's shock and disbelief. After things had been settled, the Brood flew west to set about rebuilding their orginal home—once known as Dragnast, in the mountianous North Duana Region—to its former glory. Meanwhile Ryu took his leave to continue escorting the others back across the ocean and back home again.

Formerly denounced a kidnapper and a criminal, _King_ Ryu of the Brood was welcomed into Wyndia with open arms. The King and Queen were then delighted when Ryu asked them for Nina's hand in marriage. After the fuming Princess had her say about him failing to ask _her first,_ she happily accepted and it was the first of many ties that would bind the Brood and the Wyndian Nations together. Teepo, still steeped in shock and wonder of his twist of happy fate, stood grinning widely at his friend and lord's side at the ceremony.

Momo, after the wedding, made her way back to her father's Tower with an armload of Techno-Age relics and a few uneasy questions on her mind that remained unanswered. She now had the means and the drive to answer them, though what those answers might be only she could guess.

And Rei, after seeing his two young friends find the happiness they so deserved, soon took his leave of them, turning down their offers for him to stay. He still has unfinished business himself. The beast inside of him still cried out for answers, and Rei cannot rest until he finds them.

Until he finds somewhere to belong.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 **

Rei sighed as he moved down Eygnock Road towards the Eastern Wyndia Region, ignoring the now familiar whispers and startled looks he drew from people as he did so. The sun was shining brightly overhead, it was a rather pleasant day actually with very few clouds in the sky and the temperature was pleasantly warm.

The weretiger didn't notice much of this however, his thoughts lost in melancholy as they frequently had been these past eight or so years. He absently flipped one of his daggers as he walked, blade-tip to handle to blade-tip again, almost without conscious thought. He had fought for survival every day of his life, from as early as he could remember wandering alone in Cedar Woods, and because of this his weapons had nearly become a part of him, extensions of his own hands. He scratched absently at his furred jawbone with his other paw, his large striped tail swinging slowly behind his muscled legs. His blue eyes were narrowed with the bright sunlight and the unwelcome thoughts currently churning in his brain.

Rei had followed the group to the far North to confront God for one purpose; to find out who or _what_ he was. In all his years—how many exactly he was uncertain, though he pegged it somewhere in the mid-twenties—Rei had never seen another person like him. He had seen others with shape-shifting abilities, like Balio and Sunder, or like Mikba, the crime boss of Syn City. But never another weretiger. The words of Mikba still rang hollowly in his furry-pointed ears. "God gave us this power for one reason, to lord over the weak!" Was that all he was, then? Some failed creation of Myria, his only purpose to lord over the weaker humans? The thought so sickened him he had sailed across the Endless Sea, trekked through the Desert of Death and fought God herself to try and refute it.

In the end, he didn't have any more answers than he had started with. It had been five months now since they had returned, and Rei was just as far from getting them as he'd ever been.

Ryu and Nina were happily married now and helping with the rebuilding of Dragnast in the northwest Duana Region, high in the mountains and therefore largely inaccessable to those who couldn't fly. Teepo was with them, carving out his own existence and—day by day—erasing the shadows that still lingered in his heart and soul from the years of brainwashing and control he suffered with Myria. They had offered to let him stay with them, of course, but after only a few months Rei was moving on. He loved his friends dearly, but Dragnast wasn't _his_ home. He didn't really belong there.

The tree house in Cedar Woods no longer appealed to him either. It was steeped in too many bad memories. And far too many of those memories existed in the Duana and Yraall regions altogether as well. Rei had killed too many people and burned too many bridges to ever feel welcomed in McNeil Village or anywhere near there again. And so now he was heading east, with no real plan other than putting one clawed foot in front of the other, to see where the road might take him.

Rei slowly approached the end of the road, and paused. He couldn't continue further east unless he got a passport to go through the checkpoint in Wyndia. Though no longer considered a criminal, Rei didn't have the funds right now to purchase one. So instead he turned south. Not too far down that way, he came across the Coffee Shop. Belly rumbling, Rei decided it wouldn't hurt to stop for a bit and get a bite to eat. To that end the weretiger made the trek up the steep slope. The outdoor area was lightly occupied, it being a bit too early in the day for the main afternoon rush. _Good, the less staring and pointing the better._

Rei stalked up to a table and sat, carefully maneuvering his thick tail through the back of the chair while he did so. After a moment a waitress cautiously approached. She was wearing a green dress, white and pink apron tied around it, and a very wary expression on her face.

"Um . . . hello, w-welcome to the Wyndian Coffee Shop. What-wh-what can I get you?"

Rei frowned at the menu for a moment.

"I'll take a tankard of Yraall Ale, and the ribs special I guess."

She nodded hastily, then quickly left back inside the shop. Rei rolled his eyes at that, then sighed and crossed his arms. He had come this far in his self-imposed trek, without any destination in mind. However he had now reached the cross-roads, so to speak, and it was time for him to pick one. He could either head south, maybe get a place somewhere in Genmel where he was less likely to be stared at quite so heavily. Or maybe get a passport and a boat ride to the Urkan region. Maybe get a little hunk of land to call his own and become a proverbial hermit.

Neither option really appealed to him and he grimaced in thinking of them. What then, if not those? What other option did he have? He couldn't go back to Dragnast, as much as he would be welcomed there. And McNeil Village was definitely out of the question. He wasn't a big city sort of guy, so Wyndia didn't sound too promising. And as his journey with Ryu and the others had shown him, Rei wasn't too big on salt water either, so Rhapala was out, too.

The waitress brought his meal, and Rei was still pondering the answer to his predicament as he cleaned off the last of the rib bones and downed his last gulp of ale. He wiped his mouth with the back of his furred hand, absently cleaning it again with a swipe of his pink tongue and not noticing the half-enthralled, half-horrified stare of the waitress as he did so. He tossed her the ten zenny he owed for the food and was just about to get to his feet when he felt a gentle but insistent tug on his tail.

Rei let loose a low rumble, very reminiscent of the tiger he resembled, as he whirled on the offender with narrowed eyes. He had endured such cruel treatment far too much as a child and was _very _sensitive about people touching his tail. However, he did not find some freckled brat too curious for his own good behind him, but rather a small copper robot he immediately recognized.

"Honey?"

The tiny chrysm-powered metal wonder hopped in place for a moment, perhaps expressing excitement.

"What're you doin' out here? And all by yourself?" Rei cast a quick cursory glance around but found no trace of the perky red-headed, bunny-eared engineer who named claim to the robot. Maybe they'd gotten seperated. Honey waved up and down with both of her tiny arms, and then suddenly opened a front hatch in her belly. Rei watched her withdraw a rolled up piece of paper from her mysterious innards with raised brows. Honey then came forward and held it up to him. He took it, somewhat bemused, and quickly unfurled it. Rei read the message while the copper robot suddenly pulled out a broom three times bigger than herself and began sweeping up the crumbs and debris near-by.

_Dear Rei,_

_I've sent Honey to find you, and hopefully it won't take too long to do so. I have found a very important discovery in the relics I took from Caer Xhan. Discoveries that I'm certain you'll be interested in. Please bring Honey with you, and come as soon as you can to the Chrysm Plant. I should still be there working on upgrades to the Generators. If not there, you can find me at my Tower. Please don't delay, it's very very important that you come as soon as possible._

**_Momo_**

"Well doesn't that just beat all," he murmured, folding the letter again and turning to gaze at Honey, who was still sweeping away. What in the world could she have discovered that would have anything to do with him? More to the point, why would she even care to tell him about it?

Rei and Momo had never been on the best of terms throughout the journey. She was too stuck-up, too air-headed and too technical. He was too brusque, too simple-mined and too rude. They had fought almost constantly, and it had been an incredible relief to his sensitive ears and to his peace of mind when they'd finally parted ways on the road he'd just come off of five months ago.

Yet now she was sending for him specifically. Over something _very very important._ Rei snorted, watching Honey's antics without really seeing them, too caught up in his own thoughts. No doubt her "important discovery" had something to do with the chrysm-treated crops. He had always maintained that there wasn't a damn thing wrong with regular food, and therefore there was no need to go messing with it. She had always argued that why settle for "okay" when one could make things so much better?

And if that's all it was? He shrugged then. What could it hurt to stop by? He really had nowhere else to go, after all. Appeasing his own—now maddening—curiosity would only take two days at the most, and then he could refocus on his destination and what he as going to do with the rest of his life.

With that decision made, Rei got to his feet and then bent down on one knee.

"C'mon Honey, time to go." The tiny robot immediately dropped her broom with a clatter, then walked willingly into his large paws.

Rei stood again, placing Honey on his shoulder and pausing for a moment to allow her to grab purchase on his ear before setting off back down the slope. He left the broom where it lay, knowing from experience that somehow Honey had a never-ending stock of them inside her bowels. He had ceased wondering the hows or whys of it, since it only served to give him a pounding headache.

* * *

Rei walked into the front area of the Chrysm Plant the next morning, wrinkling his nose as his sensative nostrils were assaulted with the smell of rotting vegetables. There were crates upon crates of ruined crops stacked everywhere. Several people in labcoats were miling around, clip-boards in hand, taking notes on whatever it was they took notes on. Apparently the machines were acting up. Again. Rei snorted. Served them right for messing around with stuff that didn't need to be messed with.

The former thief walked up to the nearest person, a sandy-haired man bent down to one of the generators and poking around at it's obviously-not-functioning innards.

"Excuse me," Rei murmured, and his deep rumbling voice immediately got the attention he wanted. The man's eyes widened slightly with surprise. "Can you tell me where to find Momo?"

"Ah . . . sure. Uh, I think she's up on the north ridge, working on the main reactor generator."

Rei tipped his head in thanks, then walked up to the first conveyer belt and stepped on. He crossed his arms, sighing. He just couldn't fathom why any of this technological nonsense was necessary. To him, there was nothing wrong with the way things were, so why go and mess with it? You were only asking for trouble.

The weretiger made his way across several beltways throughout the Plant, looking this way and that, trying to find the woman who'd summoned him. With the stench of rotten veggies so strong in the air, there was no chance of catching her scent and finding her that way, singular though it was. Momo, for all her oddities, had a very unique and—when Rei was in a more giving mood—rather pleasant scent. She smelled of peaches and woman and something else. Something he'd never smelled on anyone else before, though it was something that tickled his senses and for some reason put him in the mind of . . . _chasing_ her.

However odd that was.

Rei stepped off another one of the belts, turning around. He tensed when Honey suddenly tapped the side of his head and then pointed to the far corner of the ridge. He followed her gesture and saw a rumpled and smudged sky-blue smock tossed in the dirt near one of the larger metal contraptions, a tassled hat, a red ribbon and two white elbow-length gloves.

Moving in that direction, the smell of rotten food was slowly overpowered by chrysm and Momo. His tail twitched involuntarily at the latter.

Rei stepped around until he saw her, and had to smile at what he found.

Her tiny form was bent inside of the thing, one booted foot half-cocked into the air while the other one maintained precarious balance on her tip-toes. There ensued a lot of clanging and banging and an occaisional mutter that sounded like a very unladylike curse. That made him grin. She hadn't been too well-versed in them before she'd met him, but months on the road together and he'd vastly improved her repertoire. Her two scarlet-red braids fell heavily down her back, the tips swaying against her calves as she worked.

Honey immediately hopped off his shoulder, landing in the dirt with a thump, then hurried over to her master. The copper machine tugged on her pant-leg.

"In a minute," came the hollowly-echoing mezzo-soprano voice. "I've almost . . . _clang_ . . . got this . . . _snap-ping _damn it! . . . valve fixed. Just a few . . . more . . . adjustments . . . ." Rei opted not to interfere, crossing his arms instead and entertaining himself with listening to her rantings.

"There!" she abruptly crowed. The generator suddenly hummed to life, the large purple crystal atop it beginning to glow and pulsate. She lifted up and out, then, and hopped back onto her soft kid boots. Momo reclosed the hatch and latched it shut, and as she did so Rei noticed several things about her that he never had before.

The most startling was her hands. He suddenly realized that she very rarely went anywhere without gloves, and now Rei understood why. Her fingernails were actually tiny claws. Small, not at all as large or as feral-looking as his were, but they were still violet-brown pointed claws.

The second thing he noticed—as she turned to Honey with a gratified sigh and her violet-tipped, cream-colored ears twitching with excitement—was that Momo's figure wasn't near as flat and formless as he might have previously thought.

Usually encased in her voluminous smock, very little was discernable about Momo's shape other than he had gussed it would probably be pretty slender since her hands—usually covered by gloves—were slender and delicate-looking. Yet he had had no idea that she would be in possession of such nice curves to go along with that tiny lissome figure, now revealed with the thin white silk, sleeveless v-neck tunic she was wearing. Momo was still well-covered and details were still vague, but Rei began to suspect that the mouthy engineer possessed very nicely rounded hips and maybe a set of breasts that were not nearly as tiny as he had formerly thought.

He watched Momo stare down at Honey for a moment, perplexed expression on her grease-smudged face, then she suddenly glared. Her hands went to her hips and her long ears twitched adgitatedly.

"Honey! What're you doing back already! I thought I told you to go find Rei!"

Honey did a little adgitated dance, motioning toward where he stood not ten feet away, arms crossed and tail swaying with amusement. She didn't catch the hint. Momo adjusted the small spectacles that perched before her garnet red eyes with one hand and sighed heavily.

"I don't see how you expect me to get anything done here when all you want to do is play. We don't have time for that right now. I sent you on a very important mission, Hon, and its imparative that you complete it—,"

Rei finally interrupted her with a low clearing of his throat. She didn't even look in his direction, waving her slender hand at him.

"Just put the extra parts there, I'll deal with them later." Rei sighed.

"Momo," he called, gaining her attention at last as the slender woman suddenly whirled in his direction, eyes wide.

"Oh! Rei! . . . What a coincidence!" She blinked at him. "I had just sent Honey out to find you. What brings you to the Plant?"

Rei rolled his eyes. For such a techno genius, she really was slow on the uptake.

"Honey _did_ find me," he announced, coming closer, arms still crossed. He watched, enthralled, as the copper robot in question ambled over to Momo's dirty clothes and began stuffing them inside her hatch.

"Really?" Momo gaped. "So soon?" Rei shrugged, still watching as Honey' eyes began flashing and her whole body began to shake and vibrate. His eyebrow raised.

"I was eating lunch at the Coffee Shop yesterday and she came up to me with the note," he explained absently.

"Hm. How odd." Momo turned to Honey when the robot suddenly _dinged_, and quickly took her now clean clothes from the construct with a murmured thanks. Rei noticed that she put her gloves on first, quickly and with her back turned.

"So, what is this _very very important_ news you have to tell me?" he prodded, suddenly impatient to be done with this business and be away again. Momo always made him nervous and on edge, he could never explain why. It was probably why they fought so much. The sooner he could be away from her the better. She waved away his question however, redonning her blue smock and retying the thin red ribbon in a bow at her neck.

"I'd rather show you than tell you. It's at my Tower. We'll go there after I meet with the new director and give him my progress report."

Rei started to argue, then shrugged. It wasn't as if he had any other pressing matters to see to. Momo replaced her hat, then picked up Honey and led the way back across the conveyer belts toward the front of the facility, where the shop was.

"So, Honey found you at the Coffee Shop?" When he nodded wordlessly, Momo tapped at her chin with a dainty gloved finger. "Wow, that _is _a coincidence. What brings you out to Eastern Wyndia?"

"Nothing in particular," he answered guardedly. He shrugged when she turned that all-too-discerning gaze upon him. He stepped off of the last belt first, though she was quick to follow. "Just wandering, really. I was trying to decide whether I wanted to come south or go east when Honey found me and made the decision for me."

Momo only nodded to that, then led the way into the shop. She waved and answered greeting to the man and woman behind the counter, then turned to the right and knocked on a new door that Rei didn't remember seeing the last time he was here. A tenor voice called for whoever it was to enter. They did so, and Rei found himself in a small office with a desk piled with papers and a skinny, wormy looking man behind it. He grinned wide at the sight of Momo coming in to the room, and for some reason the glint in the guy's eyes immediately put Rei on guard. He felt an involuntary growl building in his throat but immediately tamped it down before he embarrassed himself.

"Momo! As always it is a pleasure. Are you finished so soon?" She smiled.

"Just the main valve on Generator One blocked up again, nothing I couldn't handle."

"You are a wonder, truly. I just don't know what I or any of us here would do without your expert assistance."

Rei nearly gagged off the amount of sugar-coated praise sliding off the mealy-mouthed man's tongue. Momo waved it aside however with a laugh and a shrug.

"No big deal. Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know that the other generators should work fine now, and that I'm going to be leaving back for my Tower soon."

"Oh?" It was hard not to miss the broken-hearted look he suddenly shot her, yet somehow Momo seemed totally oblivious to it. The man took that moment to notice him, though, and Rei was not at _all_ oblivious to the suddenly narrowed, calculating stare he was being pinned with.

Little did he know that he was actually pinning the Director with the same sort of glare.

"Who's your _friend?"_ the Director all but sneered. Momo of course didn't notice the slight, turning instead to look back at him with a half smile.

"Oh, this is Rei. He's the friend of mine I've been waiting for." She motined back to the blonde, brown-eyed man behind the desk. "Rei, this is Faddon, the new Director hear at the Chrysm Plant. He took over shortly after we took care of Palet and has been doing great things despite the many problems that have arisen."

"It's always a pleasure to meet a friend of Momo's, of course," Faddon greased, extending his hand over the desk and intending for Rei to shake it. Rei remained where he was, and gave a derisive snort to indicate what he thought of that ridiculous notion.

"Yah, unfortunately the feeling's not mutual." Rei turned to a now frowning Momo. "Can we get a move on? I don't have all season, you know."

She glared at him, ears twitching adgitatedly. "I told you, I have to finish giving my report." Rei sneered.

"Fine then, I'll wait outside. The stink of rotting food is better than the stink in here." And on the tail-end of her outraged gasp, Rei stalked from the room and back out of the shop.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 **

After apologizing again to Director Faddon, Momo finally left the office building twenty minutes later. She shoved open the door and stepped outside, ignoring the troublesome stench to instead immediately turn and pin her hot-eyed glare onto the insolent cat-man leaning back against the wall.

Rei was certainly an imposing figure, and had Momo been possessed of a smidgeon less backbone she just might have been intimidated by him. He stood well over six and a half feet tall after all, and every bit of his large frame was corded with powerful, well-trained muscle. Most of which was visible, since his outfit did little in the way of modesty. Rei still wore the outfit he'd worn during their travels ; the brown pants that ended just below his knees and matching vest, foot wraps, a wide black belt around his hips and faded white strips of cloth wrapped around each fist and forearm and leg from the calf down. His two wide, dagger-like blades were crisscrossed in the small of his back as they always were when he was at rest, the well-worn handles still within easy reach.

All of him seemed to be covered in a very fine layer of golden yellow fur, with longer tufts sprouting from his heels, elbows, shoulders and jaw line. His fur matched his hair, which was pushed back from his forehead by a wide white bandanna and then hung down his back nearly to his waist, clasped at the end with a small white strip of cloth.

Two reddish brown stripes slashed across his cheeks on either side, and curved around his large shoulders, with the same color swirling around the thick cat-like tail that now swayed lazily behind his long legs. It looked thicker than the circumference of her two hands, though that could just be the fur and not the actual size. Momo wouldn't know, since she'd never been brave enough to touch it, though she would admit privately to herself that the urge had come upon her once or twice while they had traveled together. His hands and feet sported large red-brown talons—which was probably why he never wore boots, only foot wrappings that left his toes bare. His canines were notably pointed and his ears were upswept and furry with brown at the tips.

All in all, in her less guarded moments Momo could and did consider Rei to be a very handsome man indeed, at least when he wasn't being a complete jerk. This in spite of—or perhaps it was _because_ of—his feline qualities. After all, Momo herself was a very far cry from being completely human.

Yet, as he had just so eloquently proven only moments ago, rare were the times when Rei chose _not_ to be a complete and total jerk.

"Do you mind explaining to me just what in the heck that was all about back there?" she demanded angrily, coming to stand in front of him with her fists on her hips. Toe-to-toe, the top of her head barely reached his thick collar-bone. Momo forced herself to ignore the strange impulse she always got when coming within ten feet of Rei, and that was the odd compulsion to run away as fast as she could and hide from him. It was a very weird feeling, and one that didn't make any sense whatsoever, which was why she disliked it so much. It implied that she was in some way and on some level _afraid_ of the ill-mannered thief and that couldn't be farther from the truth. Therefore Momo made every effort to stamp down and ignore the emotion through sheer determination every time it rose within her.

Rei gave her a look now as she watched, sky blue eyes slightly mocking. He always seemed to be mocking her, in one fashion or another. It was probably what bothered her most about him.

"Not really," he finally replied to her question, deep voice seeming to almost growl out of his chest and past his throat. It always put her in the mind of a big jungle cat. Before she could think to reply to that arrogant statement, Rei continued with, "you mind getting on with whatever the hell it is you brought me out here for?"

Momo felt her ears stiffen until they were nearly on end.

_"Not really!" _she spat, then spun on her heel and stalked away, not really caring if he followed. Her blue overtunic swished angrily at her ankles as she moved. Momo heard him heave a loud sigh, then he fell into step.

"Hey, let's not forget who summoned who, here."

"Well I've changed my mind!" was her petulant answer to that. Momo was acting rather childish, but right at that moment she could have cared less. "Just forget I ever said anything."

"Yah, like _that_ could ever happen," she heard him grumble from somewhere behind her. Momo's only response to that was an unintelligent snarl and to walk even faster.

The trek back to the Tower took several hours, and they said not another word to each other throughout the duration. They finally reached their destination by late afternoon.

Momo walked up the front walk, nodding absent greeting to the merchant who always sat outside near the fountain. She then continued past, up the steps and in to the entrance hall. She walked past the large crystal centerpiece near the base of the fountain and then finally came to a stop at the wall behind it, near the sign that warned of monsters and traps to would-be visitors. She turned then, suddenly, and pinned a frowning Rei with an especially cheery smile.

"Well, see you in a few hours then!" she purred, and then pushed a button on the remote she'd kept hidden in the sleeve of her overtunic. A small trap door gave way underneath her and she slipped out of slight with a crow of victorious laughter. She heard Rei angrily bellow her name just before the trap door shut again with a mechanical hiss. Momo fell the ten feet to the cushions below, then rolled out of them with a smug giggle. She stood and then made her way to the elevator near the back of the room.

_It should take him about an hour or so to navigate all the monsters and traps,_ she thought to herself as she pressed in the coordinates for the top level and then stepped aboard. _That should give me plenty of time to wash off all the grime and get things in order before he gets there._

Momo might have toyed briefly with the idea of not telling the annoying thief her recent discovery, but she couldn't really follow through with that vindictive plan, tempting though it might have been. She hadn't been exaggerating at all about its importance. Once Rei heard what she had to say, his life would probably never be the same again. Momo knew hers certainly wouldn't.

The redhead arrived at the top level to her Tower home, free of monsters and traps. It consisted of the living quarters and residence area, with kitchen, bathing areas, bedrooms and guest bedrooms and other homey necessities. Once entering, Momo set Honey to the ground—who immediately pulled out one of her brooms and set about cleaning. Well used to the robot's antics, Momo paid her no heed. Instead she made a beeline for the bathing room. A hot bath was just what she needed to wash away the sweat and grit she'd worked up from a hard day, as well as relax her nerves after her first encounter with Rei after five months apart. The man never ceased to put her on edge. And if everything went according to plan, she very well could be spending a great deal more time with him in the near future. She groaned aloud at that thought, praying for patience.

* * *

Rei snarled low as he scaled the last parapet, claws digging deep into the mortar for purchase on the old Tower walls. Sneaky little wench. He should have known something was wrong the minute she smiled at him. Momo _never_ smiled at him, unless she was being particularly devious. But if she thought she'd outsmarted him, Momo would be sadly mistaken. Rei scrambled up onto the balcony of the highest level, then crouched and took a moment to flex his pained muscles. While scaling the walls had bypassed the monsters and traps and saved him half the time, it had also been quite a workout and strained his arms a bit. 

Rei slowed his breathing, managing to get his snarling and his anger under control. It was a reflex he guessed, the sounds he sometimes made, just like a scowl or a frown. He always did it when he was well and pissed off. And this latest stunt of hers had certainly accomplished that feat well enough. What _gall!_ To send for _him_, and then ditch him to the mercy of her convoluted Tower infested with monsters and traps and only Myria knew what else.

With a heavy sigh the weretiger finally straightened, and then approached the tall paned windows. He had just enough time to peer inside and deduct that the room he stood outside of must be Momo's bedroom just before the door to the side of the room swung open. On instinct Rei pounced back out of sight and into the shadows of a tall potted plant on the side. Well hidden, he watched and waited to see what would happen next, thinking he might spring out and scare her or something as payback.

Then she stepped out of the slightly steaming doorway and Rei felt all the air rush out of his lungs as if someone had just punched him in the gut.

A slender vision stepped into the room, wet hair falling heavily like a crimson tide down her back, the curled tips brushing against her ankles. She had a soft white cloth wrapped around her middle at the moment, covering her breasts and falling to mid thigh, and the creamy skin revealed shone like pale porcelain in the fading sunlight. And then as he continued to watch, she suddenly drew the piece of cloth away from herself and tossed it onto the bed near-by. Rei swallowed hard, grasping at the wall so hard his nails bit into the stone. Dainty slender, small, yet somehow perfectly proportionate. Her arms and legs were long, waist tiny, but her hips and thighs were nicely rounded and her breasts were maybe on the small side of average but they were perfectly shaped and tipped in mouthwatering coral-pink. She was . . . well . . . _beautiful._

Rei had never seen a woman who drew that word from his brain, not even the Wyndian Princess, who had been the most attractive female he'd ever seen before this. Yet there was just something about Momo, standing there pulling her luxuriant red hair over one shoulder to dry it with her garnet eyes half-closed and almost sultry now, that just yanked the word right out of his brain. With it came the word _mine,_ which ripped through his frame with such force he shuddered. In his head he heard a voice—one that sounded suspiciously like Nina's—telling him that what he was doing was very wrong. That he should turn his back and grant her the privacy she deserved.

Rei ignored it. His brain had turned to mush, it seemed, while everything else was at full attention. Full, painfully errect attention. Just when Rei didn't think he could possibly take much more, Momo—still oblivious to his presence—turned around with her hair still over her shoulder and began walking toward the high dresser. He felt his frame stiffen yet again with shock. There, at the base of her spine and just above a very delictable rear, was a cream-white, violet-tipped rabbit-tail. It was rather large and poufy, dominating the small of her back, the fur long at the end and curling a little at the tip.

_Momo has a _tail!_ A _bunny_ tail!_ Rei watched it twitch slightly in time with her matching ears and he suddenly grinned. _And a rather cute tail, at that._ He wondered dully how she had managed to keep it hidden from them, all those months they had traveled together. Perhaps that was why she wore overly large, shapeless tunics all the time.

With a soft growl Rei abruptly tore his eyes away as she began to dress. Mostly to help regain his sanity, because if he witnessed much more Rei was afraid he just might shove open that window with much more than _scaring_ the redhead on his mind and in his intentions. As it was, he went to the edge of the balcony, still out of sight, and put himself directly into the chill wind in the hopes that the cold would help cool other parts of his anatomy. Stars, who ever thought that seeing Momo naked would put him in such a state? He never thought he'd be turned on by her, of all people, and Rei grudgingly admitted that right now he was probably more aroused than he'd ever been before in his life. His eyes narrowed. Maybe he'd been too long without a woman for company. The last time had been well before he'd joined the group to meet God, just before he'd ransacked Syn City.

Rei stayed outside until he was sure he had his libido in check, giving Momo plenty of time to get dressed and vacate the room. Hopefully he could be done with whatever business she had summoned him for soon. Rei suddenly didn't trust himself around her at all, or the strange reactions she was suddenly getting. He could only hope that once she was dressed again, the strange need that gripped him would go away. Rei growled again, and reitorated his previous thought. The sooner he could be away from the mouthy engineer the better.

* * *

Momo finished brushing and braiding her hair, then put on her slippers and glasses and padded from the room. After her hot bath and dressed now in a fresh blue tunic and white pants, she felt a million times better than before. Momo turned her steps to the kitchen to get refreshments, since she'd no doubt be talking for quite some time. The things they needed to discuss were numerous, and as her father said, talking and planning were never done well on an empty stomach. 

She set two tall glasses filled to the brim with her favorite fruit drink and some various snack foods on a tray, then carried it out into the main room. Momo estimated she should have about twenty minutes left before Rei arrived. Therefore she was quite startled to see the man in question lounging in one of her chairs.

_"Ack!"_

She jumped with surprise, and only had a splint instant of dismay to realize she was going to drop the tray and spill everything on it.

Yet in the next instant he was standing there in front of her, his hand beneath the tray to help steady it. Momo jerked again, though this time she had the sneaking suspicion it was from more than simple surprise.

Rei stood so close to her now that she could actually feel his body heat seep into her skin. His hand, beneath the tray, was spread over both of hers and nearly covered them it was so large. His fur was soft. Really soft. Almost like velvet. Warm velvet. For some reason Momo felt her face heat uncomfortably, and her mouth went dry. She stared up at him while Rei stared down at her, an unreadable expression in his blue eyes.

"Th . . . thanks," she managed to croak.

Rei wordlessly took the tray from her lax fingers, then turned and set it down on the low table. Momo swallowed several times, doing her best to regain her bearings. It took her long enough for him to plop back down in the chair again and snatch a couple of beef briskets off the tray for this to be accomplished. When she did, Momo scowled.

"How in the heck did you get up here that fast?" Rei popped one of the morsels into his mouth and chewed, pausing long enough to give her a cheeky grin.

"I ain't a thief for nothin, sweetheart," he growled playfully around his mouthful. Something in her brain still must have been off-center, because instead of thinking the display ill-mannered and disgusting, Momo found herself hard-pressed not to smile back. Instead she sighed and turned around, heading for the study.

"Well whatever. Since you're early, you can sit there by yourself while I finish getting things ready." She heard a soft rumble emanate from behind her. As always, the sound sent shivers down her spine and she felt her skin prickle. "I'll only be a minute," Momo felt inclined to throw back over her shoulder then, inwardly cursing her own cowardliness.

"C'mon, Mo, this game is getting old," he snapped at her from the other room while she began gathering her things. "Can't you just give me a hint or something?" Momo felt herself grin.

"Let's just say, I found some very interesting information in these old data tapes," she called.

"Great, a lecture," he muttered, voice slightly muffled, with more food no doubt.

"Not a lecture," Momo snapped, scowling at the doorway. "Let's just say I now know what to call you besides a jerk, a thief and a cat man."

"Oh yeah? And what would that be?" Momo ignored the sneer in his tone and came back into the room. His voice had been flippant but there was a corded tension in his frame, a reluctant spark of hope building in his eyes.

She smirked and replied, "a Woren."

"Woren?" he parroted while she came and set up her small data displayer on the table, one she had salvaged from Junk Town and rebuilt with the help of her father's notations. "What the heck is a Woren?"

"I'll _show_ you, if you'll just give me a minute," was her snippy reply, giving him a frown. He crossed his arms and gave a tigerish huff, but quieted.

Momo finished her preparations, inserting the tapes into the machine, then reached over and pressed a button on the side of the table. The vid-screen kept hidden in the ceiling came sliding down with a hiss, and Momo relished in Rei's startled jerk. She giggled and his glare deepened.

"You mind warning someone before you start making things pop out of the walls?"

"I'll keep that in mind," she wheezed, then sighed and straightened. She pressed several keys, inputting her password to get into the main system, then brought up the information she'd extracted from the data tapes. Information and images began flickering to life on the screen in front of them. Rei sat forward, frame tense and stared at them as they passed. Momo began explaining her purpose for bringing him here.

"I went to the north to see the remnants of the Techno-Age, but my reasons for wanting to do that were actually very similar to your reason for traveling." He glanced at her and she sighed. "It hasn't escaped my notice that not too many people have these," she replied, tugging on one of her ears. She glanced at her hands, suddenly realizing that she'd forgotten her gloves. She closed her hand for a moment, self-consciously hiding her claws. "Or these," was her soft murmur. Then Momo sighed and continued. "Barring the possibility that I'm some kind of failed experiment my father and Palet created with their Chrysm research, logical deduction would conclude only two other possibilities. One, you and I are some kind of creation of Myria, singular in type and with no other purpose other than to amuse her. Or two, we're actually survivors of another race, wiped out by Myria 1000 years ago like the Brood."

She typed in a couple of commands, and the screen flashed to life with the image of a man looking somewhat similar to Rei, though his fur was a darker red and his stripes were nearly black. He wore nomadic, tribalesque clothes, with a long white feather hanging from a strip of cloth around his forehead and resting against a furred cheek. The image showed him standing in a thick jungle, spear in hand, staring off in the distance at some unknown thing. The image shrank and shifted to one side, and on the other another image flickered to life. This one showed a man with long rabbit-like ears in a faded yellow jumpsuit, a wrench in hand as he worked on some large machine of some sort. Rei stared at the screen, eyes wide.

"According to the information I've found," Momo murmured, "1000 years ago there existed two races in the far southeastern continent, which was called the Vecna Region." The image shifted again and displayed an archaic map, showing a small island continent beneath the Urkan Region. "One was a fast and agile race of rabbit-humanoids, known for their genius level intellect and their gift with machinery. They were largely responsible for a great deal of the machines and technology that existed in that time. They were called Grassrunners. The other was a nomadic race of tiger-humanoids, known for their fierceness in battle and, for some, the ability to shape-shift into a powerful weretiger form, called the Tigren. Not everyone could do it. The information is vague, but it indicates the Woren had to come from specific bloodlines to gain this ability." She smirked. "Ironically enough, I think you're actually what they would consider nobility."

Rei continued to stare, seemingly deep in shock. Momo continued.

"I think I also figured out why you and I seem to fight all the time, other than the obvious." That got his attention, and he glanced at her questioningly. She brought up another image, this time showing a battlefield with Woren on one side and Grassrunners on the other. "Apparently in ancient times, your race and mine were bitter enemies. It's said the animosity was ingrained on a near instinctual level. The information alludes to Myria using this against them somehow, but it doesn't go into detail. When Myria decided to take out the Brood, she took out the Woren and the Grassrunners as well. For some reason Wyndians were left alone. I don't think she considered them to be much of a threat."

Momo reached for her drink and took a few sips while Rei continued to stare at the screen. He finally sighed and shook his head.

"Well doesn't that just beat all," he murmured. "So I'm not some freak after all." He paused again, then turned to her. "So . . . what now?"

"Well, the records that I've found indicate that while longer lived than humans, neither of our race can exceed three or four hundred years old. So the fact that _we_ exist means that there has to be others like us somewhere. My father and mother were Grassrunners, but where did they come from? After all, the Brood survived Myria's genocide. What's to say that a few Woren and Grassrunners managed to escape and go into hiding as well?" Momo tapped a few keys and brought up a current map of the world, and highlighted the area listed as uncharted, where the Vecna Region had been on the older map. "I think there might still be Woren and Grassrunners alive. And I think we just might be able to find a few clues if we go here."

"So, you want to go? As in you and me?" Momo shrugged.

"Why not? We both have a vested interest in what we'll find, after all. And as powerful as we've become, the road is still a dangerous place to be alone. I think if we put our minds to it we could manage to possibly not tear each other's throats out long enough to do what needs to be done."

Rei got quiet at that, seemingly deep in thought. Momo let him think, glad at least that he was doing that much and not denying her outright. Plus, he needed a little time to come to grips with all that she had just shown him. It had taken her a few hours herself, when she had first learned. After only a few minutes he sighed, then nodded.

"All right, I'm in. So what's the plan?"


End file.
